I followed the other thread to it's bitter end and think we need a new one. This thread is for people who DO NOT use microsoft Exchange and are looking for solutions for offline syncing with Droid.

Please, no debate over why this is necessary or whether it is a defect that the phone doesn't already have the functionality built-in. Let's just all accept that some people need it and it's not currently there.

I believe the old post referred to three possible solutions to this, all in development with the first expected in December. If anyone would like to share what they know about them, or other alternatives, I (and several others are all ears).

For now, my personal workaround is:
For calendar: Google Calendar Sync on my laptop which pushes my calendar out to Google which then pushes to my phone.

For email: No Sync. I can read new mail via pop off my email server (with a copy left on the server for my laptop to later pop permanently) and I can send mail to my smtp server from my phone with a bcc to myself so that I can add it to my Sent mail on my laptop at a later time.

For contacts: I exported my contacts to a .csv file and imported them into google (which then pushes to my phone). There is no auto sync right now between my computer outlook and google, but my contacts don't change that often. I plan to re-do the export weekly and have not tried it yet, but am really hoping I don't get duplicates in the process.

For tasks and notes: I have no current solution. I can live without tasks on my phone anyway, and I'm learning to put notes on my phone instead of in my computer outlook that way they're always with me. I believe there are some notes apps with encryption that are mentioned in another thread. I haven't tried them out yet personally but I plan to and will comment in the thread that refers to them

I realize these won't work for everyone, but they're working for my needs until a better solution is developed. Any other workaround ideas would be great. That's what forums like this are best for.

Mods, if someone has already created a thread like this and I missed it, feel free to delete.

Email: Go direct. If your provider supports iMap, then boxes will be synchronized.

Calendar: Current best are Google Calendar Sync unless you get Windows Livemeeting or Cisco MeetingPlace invitations which won't synch, or CompanionLink, which works great, but costs $40.

Contacts: Go Contact Sync (free) or CompanionLink ($40).

Tasks: This is a tricky one. CompanionLink will sync them, but it puts them as all day events in your calendar. I haven't seen anything better yet though. Lots and lots of task managers for Android, just none that sync to Outlook.

Notes: Also tricky. Companionlink puts them in your Contacts (sorted to the beginning by prefixing with a "|" and using the contacts notes field). I think this is an ugly solution, but I only care about getting my notes to my computer, not to Outlook, so I use Upvise which syncs notes to a web site, and can import existing notes that are in files. Also has a shopping list, contacts, and some other cool apps.

If you are a Google Apps Premium user, there is a sync app that does Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Tasks, but it is not available to Google Apps standard or non Google Apps users.

There appears to be a need to an app that will do a direct wireline, Bluetooth, or WiFi synch to Outlook without using Google or another intermediary, and that does not seem to currently exist.

For now, I have similar work-arounds as you, however for my Notes, I am using a program I found (on the app store) called TextEdit. It's just a simple text editor that allows me to save text files onto my SDCARD. Seems to work well.

Of the 3rd party standalone Outlook sync apps out there in development, I have found the following that "appears" to be the most promising. They mention a beta version of the program that I'm chomping at the bit to try - but even the beta is not ready:

It's funny, I was just at the Verizon store and the sales guy (young and cocky) was really confident that sync would work with the included USB cable and some included software. That does not correspond with this thread and other posts I've been reading. Right now, everything points to CompanionLink for Google. What was the guy in the Verizon store talking about?

Microsoft Outlook is an e-mail management system, not your e-mail internet service provider. Who is your service provider (usually what comes after the @ in your email address...)? For example, my email address is xxxxx@optonline.net so my internet service provider (ISP) is Optonline. Some use Yahoo, some use Google, there are many.

It sounds like you don't have that set up on you phone yet. Once you tell us who it is, we can better help you. (Optonline is a POP provider. Google is IMAP...too many "unknowns" at the moment!)

excellent thread. Looking for a solution as you describe which doesn't require gmail or google calendar. I use my current HTC Touch Pro running WinMo 6.1 and MS ActiveSync. My lil sister just got a motorola droid and now, of course, I want one too.

But I absolutely must be able to perform a 2 way sync (merging phone and laptop contacts, calender, tasks and notes (i keep all of my server names, IPs, userids and pwds in those)). I need to be able to sync at least once and sometimes a couple times a day to keep my contacts and calendar up to date. Going through gmail, csv files, google calendar, etc just wouldn't be feasible.

What is in the works so far? Can you tell us more about what is coming in December? How close do you think it will be to what I require?